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Patriots take a stand

On a bright Saturday morning, a good friend sent me a link to the New York Times (NYT) article on six New England Patriots team members probably not going to the White House to shake hands with the President. The article, for the sake of completeness, mentions previous instances in which some players did not go to the White House.

One does not know if the NYT devoted an article in those instances. But, we shall let that pass. Mentioning the past instances itself is a good thing to do. Let us applaud them for that.

This tradition, apparently cemented during the Reagan era, actually deserves to be scrapped. These are not national teams. Well, in any case, it is a President’s time-out, perhaps.

The players who have decided to opt out of the handshake and photo-op have, perhaps, failed to factor in a few things. NYT cannot be expected to highlight them.

(1) At half time, when no one would have given them a chance, the President backed them. Further, he also made two important and insightful observations:

(a) One must back friends

(b) They have won before and therefore they know how to do it.

Well, may be, it is good that these athletes take an interest in and take a stand at all. Alternatively, may be, these are shoutouts inside echo chambers.

I am an avid reader of your blog. I am a faculty in a US engineering school (working in the area of ecometrics) and follow economic news with interest. That is how I found your blog and have been reading it for the last few years. In general, I am quite impressed with your articles and am keen to follow your thoughts – for example, I was curious about how you rated the budget. But over the last 6 months your articles on the US election and Trump in general are quite disturbing to me. I have been wanting to respond to your support to Trump.
To clarify, I am right of center in economic policy and quote liberal in religious matters. In India, I support the BJP govt at center. So, I am not a pseudo-secular guy taking issue here. As a morally upstanding person, how can you support Trump? Forget his economic policy, I have seen all his 15+ debates and never does he come across as a sensible person. I mean he is openly fascist, misogynistic and thin skinned. His statements on John McCain among other things clearly show what kind of a person he is. Given this background, how can you support him? What standards are you setting for leadership if Trump is a good leader. To be sure, I am not blind to the fallacies of NYT and American press and Hilary Clinton. But Trump’s ignorance of facts and his lies should make you question his motives. But I see you support him with little reservation. His cabinet is full of billionaires with no scruples who made money in the financial sector (a group of people you criticize) – so how do you justify your support?